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gunda007: December 2011 Archives

In only one semester of Psychology I feel like I have learnt a rather large number of concepts and I know that however much I may hope to do so, I cannot remember all of them five years from now. I also know that it isn't really in my power to choose which concepts I will remember but right now I think I am most likely to remember the six principles of scientific thinking and the importance of applying them to everything.
These six principles (Correlation vs. Causation, Ruling out Rival Hypotheses, Falsifiability, Extraordinary claims, Occam's Razor and Replicability) were applied to several claims made by various individuals(or groups) throughout the course and they were used to prove that some studies and statistics which we think are reasoned out perfectly scientifically are actually just pseudoscience, or myths in other words.
One does not have to be involved in the field of psychology to find these principles useful. In my opinion, they seem to be perfectly applicable to many fairly common real world scenarios and if put to the proper use they can help us avoid unwanted prejudices and biases while also helping us to evaluate our beliefs. As such, I feel that they are important tools even outside the field of psychology.